Archive for January, 2008

The Australian reports more recent developments in the Ishmael Beah (Long Way Gone, 2006) controversy. “US critics ‘wanted to believe’ child soldier’s tale,” by David Nason: THE US literary establishment gave former Sierra Leone child soldier Ishmael Beah a “free pass” on the accuracy of his international bestselling memoir A Long Way Gone because it […]

So you’ve probably been wondering how my 70+ book group turned out? No? Well, let me tell you anyway. Please? Okay, so here’s what happened. First, I shouldn’t have been all up in arms over 70+ RSVPs. Because only 35 people showed up. Which is still about 20 too many for a good book discussion […]

So Internet use is allegedly dominating people’s time and causing them read fewer books. But an awful lot of people are using the Internet to buy books. (Although U.S. online shoppers don’t crack the top 10.) From BBC News (“Books ‘most popular online buy’“). More books are sold on the internet than any other product and the number is […]

From the Guardian (“‘Plot to kill’ Nobel laureate,” by Richard Lea): Thirteen people have been arrested in Turkey as part of an investigation into an ultra-nationalist gang reported to be planning the assassination of Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk. According to reports in the Turkish press, the author of international bestsellers including My Name is Red […]

I am currently reading the teen science fiction book Epic by Conor Kostick and it is filled with Scandinavian names. The characters have names like Injeborg, Svein, and Hleid. I am uncertain how to say these names which would not stop me from using the book for a book discussion but does present a hurdle. […]

Simon Dumenco wittily dismisses Steve Jobs’ dis of the reading public (“The Written Word? It’s So Totally Over, According to Mr. IPod,” Advertising Age)–but that still doesn’t change the fact that, riding the bus last Friday, I was sandwiched between two guys watching TV on their iPods. As for Jobs’ stat, it seems he extrapolated […]

According to Marc Weingarten in the Los Angeles Times, struggling novelists now face another source of competition: striking screenwriters (“Hollywood writers turn to Plan B: the novel“). Given the film scribes are used to earning, though, book advances certainly won’t make them forget their day jobs: Lydia Wills at Paradigm agreed that “back-burner projects” are now getting more attention, noting […]

A. L. Kennedy (Paradise, 2005; Indelible Acts, 2003) has won the Costa Book of the Year award (you remember the Costa, it used to be the Whitbread) for her fifth novel, Day (Jonathan Cape, 2007). Taking a quick look at the author’s site, I found myself charmed by her reviews of her reviews. Not for […]

In Slate, Garth Risk Hallberg asks, “Who Is Grady Harp?” I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I had imagined Amazon’s customer reviews as a refuge from the machinations of the publishing industry: “an intelligent and articulate conversation … conducted by a group of disinterested, disembodied spirits,” as James Marcus, a former editor at […]

Keir’s not going to believe me when I say I’m lousy at cocktail parties. But I mean it. I suk at them. I don’t ever walk into a gathering of any kind without some kind of game or trick to share in order to avoid embarrassing lapses in conversation. At the Midwinter Conference in Philadelphia […]

Lynn: Renowned author Paul Fleischman is a man on a mission. He wants teens to look beyond their own “internal movie,” beyond the dazzling technological changes in our world to the side effects and huge environmental problems we face. Using in-your-face, blunt language in Eyes Wide Open: Going Beyond the Environmental Headlines (2014), Fleischman sets about […]

Lynn: As an educator, a parent, and a grandparent, one of my goals has been to fan the flames of curiosity in kids. It’s a critical trait and one that often seems to get squashed somewhere along the K-12 march. I love books that encourage kids to ask questions. Marc Aronson’s books always seem to […]

Lynn and Cindy: While shapes are a common subject for picture books, it is still a pleasure to find new ones that are both fun and instructive for young readers. If it were left to us, we’d throw out all the boring textbooks for the primary grades and stock them with fabulous picture books. See—educational reform […]

Lynn: Renowned author Paul Fleischman is a man on a mission. He wants teens to look beyond their own “internal movie,” beyond the dazzling technological changes in our world to the side effects and huge environmental problems we face. Using in-your-face, blunt language in Eyes Wide Open: Going Beyond the Environmental Headlines (2014), Fleischman sets about […]

Lynn: As an educator, a parent, and a grandparent, one of my goals has been to fan the flames of curiosity in kids. It’s a critical trait and one that often seems to get squashed somewhere along the K-12 march. I love books that encourage kids to ask questions. Marc Aronson’s books always seem to […]

Lynn and Cindy: While shapes are a common subject for picture books, it is still a pleasure to find new ones that are both fun and instructive for young readers. If it were left to us, we’d throw out all the boring textbooks for the primary grades and stock them with fabulous picture books. See—educational reform […]